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A few thoughts from an avid ARAM/Dominion player.

Hanatorou·3/26/2015, 3:33:16 AM·14 votes·3,781 views

Hello all who take the time to read!

I'll try to make this quick: Hi, my name is Hanatorou and I'm a dominion/ARAM/temporary fun map modes - Addict. queues everyone Hi Hanatorou....lol.

Anyway, in all seriousness I'm a hardcore ARAM/Dominion fan-boy. I love the concept of a map mode that's more quick paced and for fun, and less about farming mechanics and hardcore objective control. Super competitive things usually just bring out the worst in people (myself included) so I usually veer away from ranked/summoners rift.

I've never played ranked, I've never played in tournaments, I've never been banned or even warned, nor have I really bought that much RP so basically what i'm trying to say is I've flown under Riots raider. I'm sure there are a TON of other players like me in the world.

I don't want to make this into a giant complaint thread, mostly because I used to love this game, and I still want to I think it's creators are genius! But with that being said, for the past few months maybe even since the start of 5.0 I've felt neglected, or almost rejected. The modes I play are widely considered unbalanced, it's a fact no one really likes to admit too, and no one likes to point the blame but every time I see another patch go by it seems players like me get a little more ignored.

To add on top of that without the Tribunal, and without any noticeable rewards for honoring players it seems the small population I play games with (sometimes literally the same players on my team in ARAM game after game) is getting more and more toxic and more and more critical of the smallest errors. Even with everyone blocked/muted the amount of ???? ping spam makes me feel frustrated playing any champion i'm not super comfortable with (and with ARAM i have little choice in the matter)

I would LOVE to hear back from a Red or anyone that works at riot, give me some reason; some glimmer of hope in the distant future not to just uninstall the game and try out a different MOBA. But i do understand you guys are busy, so please keep at it and try and find some time to show some love for the little guy - the aram player. <3

TLDR: Without meaningful updates to the modes/maps i enjoy (everything but summoners rift) and without any seen progress in the Tribunal/Honor system. I find myself with little to no reason to play and I'm sure there are many others who feel the same.

24 Comments

RiotMANWOLFAXEBOSS3/26/2015, 6:41:00 PM16 votes

We've got some cool stuff coming soon™ :) Don't lose hope brave warrior.

SKOBODO3/27/2015, 9:56:40 AM4 votes

"The modes I play are widely considered unbalanced, it's a fact no one really likes to admit too, and no one likes to point the blame but every time I see another patch go by it seems players like me get a little more ignored." -Hanatorou

I think Dominion, right now, is more balanced than SR (and TT, and ARAM for sure), making it the most balanced mode. Lots of champions are viable, and very few champions are OP (Urgot being the main offender, currently, though I suspect live balance team will figure out that they overdid the buffs and either nerf him directly and/or Frozen Heart and/or Manamune).

I'd argue that Dominion is in a better state now than it's been for a long time (not counting the 5.5 patch, since the Urgot buffs were a bit much, though not that many players seem to have caught on yet, thankfully). We will probably never get ranked, but there are tournament popping up here and there by various organizations (at least on EUW), and normal queues seem to have improved. They seem shorter now compared to mid-late Season 2, Season 3, and Season 4. I'm not sure this means there are more players, Riot could have updated the matchmaking algorithm, but still, getting games in less than 20 minutes is really nice (often even less than 10 minutes, especially if premading. In the past I'd be happy for a game in less than 20 minutes of queue, now the average queue times seem to be more like 10 minutes. Progress!).

Are there issues with Dominion? Sure. From what I've gathered, they can't really be fixed that easily, though, since they are coded into the map and the code is hard to reverse. The broken personal score system (that some people still believe is relevant) and the broken quest system are the most obvious issues, but both

I am speaking from an EUW point of view. I don't know how it is on NA, perhaps NA has significantly longer queue times.

aaronconlin3/27/2015, 12:38:49 AM2 votes

I love ARAM, I don't really care for Dominion though. I'm really excited to see what's coming

The Bearded Bard4/13/2015, 9:15:23 PM2 votes

Unlock all champs for people playing ARAM. Sick of seeing the same champs over and over for people that make ARAM accounts.

Dessim83/26/2015, 9:31:56 PM2 votes

You mention a problem with people being critical of errors. Is it wrong to be mad in an ARAM match if say... Malphite or Chogath are going AP and they're your only bulky champion? Is that a little thing because to some, it is and when I ask why they don't tank like a normal human being, the responses range from rude to unimaginable. These sorts of things would NEVER fly in SR, so why should they fly here. The egalitarian thing to do is treat them with equal opportunity of reward AND punishment for deliberate misbuilding.

I could be way off base though with what you mean.

Kat Head10/7/2015, 9:44:41 PM1 votes

And aram is in a much worse place than it was before the snowball changes.

Things that should be removed from aram:

summoner 32 item 3083

Champions that need adjusted in aram:

Soraka

Xypher3/29/2015, 12:53:49 PM1 votes

Add me for ARAM! I just moved my ID from EUW to NA <.>

Kholdstare134/13/2015, 9:08:15 PM1 votes

MWAB still hasn't spoken since the post here. Not a word.

Kouga4/13/2015, 9:15:25 PM1 votes

Summoner's Rift will always be the main focus of balance changes and Champion design, because that is where the Tournaments and Pro-level play is. That's where Riot makes a huge amount of their revenue.

So while a portion of their "bandwidth" will hopefully be devoted to other game modes, you can expect that will always be a pet project or placed on the back burner. Not saying that's a right or wrong way for them to do things, just a realistic expectation.

Kholdstare134/24/2015, 6:04:12 PM1 votes

Can we just steal TT's ranked queue and turn it into a Dominion ranked soloq? We can even give them our normal draft queue in return. Net neutral change in queues available means Riot can't complain about population problems, and Dom is more balanced than TT anyway once you ban out Urgot.